Chapter One
A man stands on the pitcher’s mound. His deep skin glints with sweat under the unrelenting sun. He adjusts his hat, twiddles his fingers, and rubs the smooth baseball in his left hand against his jersey three times. Across the field, the catcher imperceptibly nods. He takes his stance, and the batter readies his. The bases are loaded, bottom of the ninth, and one hit could end the game in tears. He rears back, his body becomes liquid muscle, every tendon working in tandem, his planted feet up to the coiled spring of his legs, his boiling core powering the machines of his arms, time stretched to the very limit of it’s boundaries as his body naturally follows through, hurling the ball in a slider curve going just shy of 80 miles per hour, and the batter, desperate to connect and swinging as hard he can… misses. The ball drops at the last second, into the bottom right hand corner of the strike zone and just shy of the batter’s swing, into the waiting catcher’s mitt.
The stadium explodes as that sinks in. This strikeout was the last of the game. For the first time in living memory, the Wausau Worms of Wisconsin were going to the Major League, replacing the Milwaukee Bison after their less-than-impressive attempt this year.
The pitcher, Tobias Squint, stands awe-stuck, staring at the spot the batter stood in mere seconds ago, before he’d slunk off to his dugout in defeat. He’s done it. His pitching debut in the State Minor League for Wisconsin, and he’s managed to drag his team all the way to the win. No other teams had wanted him, what with his affinity for throwing slurves and eephus pitches, but now the entire state had seen him throw a strikeout with the entire game riding on it. A grin slowly spreads across his face. His team were finally approaching him, surrounding him on the mound. The bubble of joy blossoms within him before it bursts outward.
“YEEAAH!!!” he screams at the top of his lungs and throws his limbs wildly around his body as he jumps up and down. His teammates converge on him, picking him up and throwing around. Hands pull at his jersey and he bats them away before they can tear the fabric off of him. A couple of his older teammates smiled knowingly, helping to keep the overeager revellers from shredding it. He wouldn’t be able to wear it again, a new jersey would be issued to him for the Major League, one with a much higher thread count than the team could usually afford, but he still wanted to keep it. A momento from his first league win. In their celebration, the team carry him from the mound and off the field. Back in the locker room, his older teammates, and one in particular- Johnny Serazowa, a hulk of a shortstop who’s surprisingly agile on his feet -keeps the rowdier of the crowd off of him until he could fold his jersey and lock it up for safe-keeping.
As soon as his locker clattered closed though, the flood broke through. Tobias is jostled from every direction, riding the wave of people right out of the locker room and onto the streets, where a crowd of Wausau-ians cheer at their appearance. An unknown face shoves a plastic cup of beer into his empty hand and, with a shrug, Tobias finally lets himself let loose. The road leading here was long, but it was finally over. Everything he’d been working for since he was first handed a baseball as a shy kid. If he were at all extroverted he would’ve made a speech. Instead, he raises his cup. The crowd falls quiet, waiting to hear from their star pitcher.
“WORMS ALL THE WAY!” he shouts, and the crowd goes wild, an explosion of cheering, and Tobias lets himself drink the stress of the year away. His cup never empties, and his name, his full name is chanted throughout the night. It’s a heady feeling, one he doesn’t think he’ll ever get used to. Right now, everyone in Wisconsin knows his name. Forty-nine teams from forty-nine other states will be looking up the Wausau Worms, judging them, judging him as their competition for the Major League next year. There will be interviews, television spotlights, fans.
The first thing he’s going to make sure of, his first order of business, is making sure that everyone knows his full name. He’s not going to let people just call him Squint anymore. It’s Tobias Squint, and soon the whole world will know it. All the teams that passed on him, who told him that his pitching style was just ‘too risky’, well look at him now. Star Pitcher in his State Minors debut. It’s enough to give a lesser man an ego. Tobias has a better head on his shoulders than that. Growing up in the background of your own life’ll do that. Sure, no one really paid him any mind, but that’s no reason to lose your own mind when they finally do.
Whatever. He’s worrying too much, when he should be enjoying the win. Johnny appears at his elbow, as if sensing his internal turmoil. He presses a hot dog into Tobias’ free hand, and slides a full plastic cup of beer into the empty one he’s already holding.
“Hey,” he says, and Tobias looks down at his face, into his eyes. They’re as serious as Tobias tends to be on the mound, completely antithetical to the Johnny he’s come to know. “I can see you thinking too hard. Leave it to tomorrow. Enjoy tonight, eh?” He grins and pats Tobias hard on the shoulder, jostling him to the point of spilling his beer over his hand and the ground.
“Yeah,” Tobias takes a long drink from his cup, biding his time as he contemplates further.
Johnny recognises the look in his eyes and cuts in before Tobias can get lost in his own internal monologue. “I mean it, dude. No point in working so hard if you can’t reap the reward!”
He has a point there, so Tobias concedes with a grin. “You know me well.”
“Yeah, and it was worth all the trouble it took!” Johnny laughs and shakes Tobias by the firm grip he has on his shoulder, making him spill his beer again. “You can’t blend in now we’re in the Majors, Toby!”
“Hooray,” he deadpans back, but he grins and Johnny laughs.
“Eat! Drink! Make merry, for once in your life!”
“I’ll try my best, just for you.”
“That’s all I ask, my friend,” Johnny shakes him one last time, and he points out the nearby keg as he departs.
Tobias watches him effortlessly mingle as he goes, laughing and joking as if everyone he meets is his best friend. In a way, they are, Johnny believes in loving everyone he meets as hard as he can for as long as he’s able. Joining the Worms was a culture shock for him in more ways than one. They may have been the only team willing to take on an unknown pitcher with a penchant for breaking balls, but being able to play baseball with people who haven’t been calling him Squint for his entire life was as freeing as it was terrifying.
Now it was all set to change again. The Major League would have a great deal more pressure, especially as a practically unheard team amongst the big dogs of the country.
Johnny was right though. He could worry about it tomorrow. Tobias takes a bite of his hot dog, washes it down with his beer, and throws himself into the the party dominating the street.
Wisconsin State Journal
November 2nd
The Worms Take it All the Way!
In a nail-biting finale to the tied series between the Wausau Worms and the Green Bay Pikes, the Worms clinched their first State Minor victory. The odds were against this David amongst Davids, but with the help of their star pitcher, Tobias Squint, they were able to conquer the first Goliath on the long road to the Major League. Little is known about the Worms or their star, but they have surely attracted the attention of the whole nation in their unrelenting push to the top.
With their first win securely under their belt, next year the Worms will be representing Wisconsin in the Major League, replacing the Milwaukee Bison after their failure to achieve a victory of their own. The Milwaukee Bison will be returning to the Wisconsin State Minor League next year, where they hope to earn another chance at the Major League.
The Worms’ pitcher, Tobias Squint (pictured), is a new-comer to the league. At just 22 years old, he has debuted with a bang, attracting the attention of clubs across the nation, but with this win, he’s tied in with the Worms for at least another year. From what we’ve seen, he likes to throw batters off-balance with… (continued on page 16)
Artwork by Alena